Korean Journal of Legal Medicine  2008;32(2):140-143

A Self-inflicted Pneumatic Nail Gun Head Injury.

Seong Ho KIM 1 ; Tae Gong KIM ; In Soo SEO ; Jae Hong JO ; Young Shik CHOI

Affiliations

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Keywords

Craniocerebral injury; Autopsy; Nail gun; Suicide, Self-inflicted injury

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

A nail gun is a type of a tool used to drive nails into some kinds of hard materials. In this paper, an unusual case of intracranial penetrating nail gun injury is presented. The body of a badly charred man was found following a house fire. Autopsy revealed four intracranial nails in the occipital area. Also, tears of the stomach and diaphragm were found. Carbon monoxide saturation of a blood sample was a 5.2% and a small amount of soot was present in larynx and trachea. Subsequent investigation of the circumstance and autopsy findings strongly suggest that the deceased had shot himself in the head with a pneumatic nail gun and had died by self immolation.